An Uncle Tom is usually a person who betrays their own kind to support the dominant culture. Every Muslim has seen those individuals who claim to “know” Islam because either they grew up within the religion or converted to it, who either leave Islam or are still Muslim but support the Islamophobic dogma of the Dominate culture. Some prefer not to use the term “uncle tom” anymore because the character from Uncle Tom’s Cabin had little choices in his life. (I am willing to change the name of the term once I find a better one.) When these Muslim figures help support Far Righters and are in themselves, not religious scholars, are problematic because they are used as speakers for all “Muslims” promoting further the Islamophobic dogma. You don’t need to have a degree in Islam to speak about Islam, but to have a lack of knowledge on some of the basic foundations of the religion can retort it.

The Far Right, racists, islamophobias, and etc. use people who claim to either be ex-Muslims or Muslims to further their own agenda to persecute Muslims. A famous Uncle Tom “Muslim” is Ayaan Hirsi Ali who was a refugee to Germany and illegally ran for office. She is famous for her novels on critiquing Islam, claiming it’s problematic and needs reform. Before I even thought about converting to Islam or even thought about it as an option for me, I read her biography after I saw her interview on the famous prejudice “liberal” talk show. While I felt her story is important and actually quite interesting, it didn’t prove to me that Islam was wrong. In fact, it made me mistrust her even more, as she was not shy about explaining every detail in her early life, it would be one thing to say Islam is the problem if she didn’t just write in detail that most of the “evils” were by her own actions and a few bad people.

Unfortunately, she was a victim of genital mutilation, not at the hands of her parents but her grandmother. Her parents did not want this practice to happen to her, the father usually was not in the picture. As refugees in Kenya, she was sexually assaulted by a religious teacher her mother hired. Then as a teenager, who was traumatized and unwilling to trust her family, she joined an extreme Islamic religious group (that her family was not apart of). Married a man without her family’s knowledge or consent. Eventually making her way to Europe and discovering her inner KKK Self, taking off her layers of clothes and getting an education. No one can’t say her life wasn’t terrible, but her blame was on her religion and culture but more particularly her religion. It was not her family that joined the puritan Islam but her. She places all her life grievances on the religion, using it as a crutch to blame all the evils of her life on.

A common theme for Muslim Toms is claiming that Islam is in the need for reform. A total overhaul of the religion is a need if we want to be citizens of modern society. The problem with this is assuming a Western Christian point of view on a religion that was not established in a Eurocentric region is needed. Sunni Islam does not have religious leaders like Christianity, Imams and sheiks are more religious guidance counselors and teachers, not a religious authority. This ambiguity allows for all Muslims to decide how they want to interpret their religion. Born Muslims are more influenced by their own cultural interpretations of the religion, and when searching for a “true” path they come in contact with extreme puritanical groups who claim they know the truth. This truth is devoid of any spiritual meaning and demoting the Prophet’s words to life rules that have no meaning. Many youths do join these groups more when they face racism, islamophobia, economic problems, and mental health. So ironically the rise of Islamophobia and rhetoric by these Uncle Toms, in fact, spread the cancerous extremism among the youth.

Reform isn’t needed because there are already hundreds of texts of everything from supporting Gay rights to Women’s rights dating back to the beginning of the religion. Unlike the Christianity of Europe, who needed to fight the system to find their own ideas, Islam was relatively relaxed when it came to small factions. As long as these factions didn’t, of course, take power away for the ruling class. Which is why there are hundreds of different schools of thought in Sufism, Sunnism, and Shiism. There should be a “revolution” such as creating spaces for women in the mosque, encouraging mosque attendance for women, discussing mental health, and etc., these things do need to change but it isn’t something the Government should involve itself in. For Racist Far righters in Europe, Hirsi Ali’s writing is proof of the trouble with Islam, it feeds the Islamophobic system. She isn’t the only person who writes negatively about Islam, there are others who converted to Christianity that feel the need to feed the racist monster claiming the religion is evil. As a convert myself, I do not view Christianity as evil, but I did face a lot of negativities within the religion that I could write a “Evils of Christianity” book, like those converts to Christianity.

There also those Muslims who are pro-Islam but still demonize the people, such as Minaj who decided to say it was Palestinians choice to remain poor and discriminated against. I already made a post about her book, that pretty much felt like a roller coaster of ideas that goes nowhere. It isn’t wrong to critique Muslims and Muslim society, there are plenty of great authors who do so that are both Muslim and not. The problem is that these novels aren’t promoted in major bookstores like Barnes and Noble. So, for the average person curious about the religion runs into only the Quran (often good ones) and perhaps books written about the “Evils” of Islam or books written by Christians, not scholars of the Religion trying to explain how wrong Islam is, in the Islam section of bookstores. Along with these are conspiracy books in both the religious section and political section about Muslims worshipping Sumerian Gods, wanting a Jihad, and etc. When Uncle Toms gain popularity, it furthers this media framing of Muslims, furthering Islamic ignorance on the public.

So, who can be considered a spokesperson of Islam? Who can we trust? Think of it this way, how would you feel if a White Cis-Straight Man came on TV, was promoted and stated that “Christians are an evil people bent on spreading the covered-up Hercules figure to the average public. White culture is a disease upon our nation, soon we will be eating pasta, sausages, and mash potatoes.” It wouldn’t feel good that the only spokesperson for Christian individuals was by ex-Christians or by non-practicing Christians who claim that all Christians are the same, smashing Catholics with Mormons. Yeah wouldn’t go over too well, right? So why do we allow the same thing for Muslims?

These pseudo-experts are pushing for an anti-Islamic agenda while ignoring experts, pushing ideas that are offensive and incorrect.  Hirsi Ali calls Islam “the new fascism” and “a destructive, nihilistic cult of death.” Her work has been used for a far-right shooter Andres Breivik’s manifesto, the man killed 77 people and injured 319 in Norway. Hirsi Ali sympathized with him and said he “had no other choice but to use violence.” Her only creditably is that she was a “former” Muslim; she also doesn’t believe for “political correctness” around Islam.

Uncle Toms come in all forms some aren’t as crazy as Hirsi Ali, one such woman is Asra Nomani. A journalist and author of the book Standing Alone. Nomani is actually highly important in the mosque movement, even creating the manifesto for women in the mosque. Despite her original self in the early 2000s as being a hot ticket for good, she eventually switched tones during the Obama era and even promoted Trump. Supporting his Muslim ban in all. Nomani has denounced the hijab in media calling it “misinterpretation of the Quranic verses” and rejects all schools of thought in Islam. In 2012 she testified at the fifth King hearing that Islam is connected to deflection of extremism.

Governments and media really don’t care to have “authentic” voices of Islam from the country, they don’t check to see if these people actually represent the Muslim community. These Uncle Toms are used because they provide enough proof for media framing that Islam is evil. These news outlets and politicians can go “see THIS Muslim says the hijab isn’t ISLAM, so let’s ban it”. This kind of talk distorts the actual discourse of the veil for Muslims themselves; when a famous Egyptian feminist went on a British news channel to argue with a niqabi, she was shot down with logic and religion by the woman wearing the veil.

The problem with these Uncle Toms is that they are representing their own opinions and not facts. Nomani’s stance on getting rid of women’s spaces in Islam was founded in fact but when she goes on tv claiming hijab is not Islamic, we have a problem. We don’t need to take a stance on any school of Islamic thought, but not all are wrong or questionable. Take for instance the hijab, which I do discuss in my novel Niqab**ch, the veil in all forms is discussed in hadith lore and in the Quran. The word hijab isn’t used in the Quran for dress code but khimar and jilbab are, hence why Muslim women use and have used words like khimar and jilbab to describe Islamic dress codes, not Hijab. Hijab is a relatively modern word describing the veil on women’s heads. So if you can’t read Arabic and unaware of the word usage in the Quran you can state “Hijab is not mentioned for women in the Quran”.

When we promote these voices as “truth” it stifles actual voices in the community, provides support for dangerous policies, and makes it harder for Muslims to assert themselves as active members in society. The rhetoric also leads to extremism form both sides, both seeing each other as a threat. There isn’t one person who can speak on behalf of all religions, but there are plenty of Muslims who are speaking about extremism and Islam that the media and government can consult. Just take a look at my Islamophobia book list, those individuals are great at representing Muslim voices when it comes to political aspects.